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Monday, January 21, 2013

2012 Hottest Year On Record

I've seen a lot of news coverage referring to 2012 as the hottest year on record, and some are more careful to say hottest year on record in the United States. Click here to see a graph of temperatures for the United States from NOAA. Even assuming that the temperature records do not reflect problems with weather station siting (like the end of jet runways and urban heat island effects), you can see that 1934 was distinctly warmer than 2012.

UPDATE: A reader points out that graph is for May; if you include July or August, 2012 is the warmest. I don't immediately see a way to get a whole year average there.

4 comments:

I'm surprised you look only at May, and not July or August. Mind you, I do think there are issues with data quality and sighting, but if the May data is valid on its face, then the July or August data contradict your conclusion (that 1934 was distinctly warmer than 2012).

I read an analysis of these new highs on the Houston Chronicle website. The temp used is calculated from the high and low of the day. The high temps didn't change but this year our lows were drastically different.